Another Heir
by IsabellaFaye11
Summary: The Zythe family is a prestigious one. A pure-blood and completely Gryffindor family of courageous do-gooders. Selene Zythe however is not all she seems. Intrigue, Manipulation and Adultery have led to her having a dubious lineage, a dangerous destiny, a hidden power and no allies. When Selene is thrown into the viper pit can she survive? Or will Hogwarts destroy her and the world?
1. Warning Disclaimer

Warning: Contains discussion of suicide and depression, along with bulling and discrimination.

AN: When I started writing this it was completely different. It was a lot lighter and fun but when I started to develop the plot I realized that this story could never be entirely light and fun because the issues were dark and serious, so the story needed to reflect these issues. I didn't want to gloss over these problems because of how common they are. People just brush off things like bulling and depression, claiming that it's just a bit of fun or that they just want attention and that's not okay. So although this will address serious problems faced by teenagers in our modern world it won't be dreary and dark, I will endeavor to give it ups and downs in equal measure. Nevertheless I hope you enjoy the tale of Miss Selene Hazel Zythe.

Disclaimer: I only legally own my words not the universe in which I'm writing, that belongs to J.K Rowling. Right now that there are no lawsuits headed my way, onto the fun stuff.


	2. Chapter 1 - Is Evil Genetic?

Chapter One - Is Evil Genetic?

"Have fun in Gryffindor Selene!" Lady Celeste Zythe called to her youngest daughter as Selene boarded the Hogwarts express for the first time. Her husband stood stoically by her side, impassive to his wife's child leaving the station.

Lord Zythe may not have been placed in Ravenclaw but he knew Selene wasn't his. He'd known since he'd first held the abomination but he'd always internally denied the obvious truth. After their first child (and in his mind, their only child) Katherine had been born, Michael's life was complete. He was married to a beautiful Gryffindor woman and had an equally beautiful daughter who would carry on his family's proud Gryffindor history. Then Celeste got pregnant again, it wasn't until he'd held the thing in his arms that he'd even thought his faithful wife had strayed. Both he and Celeste had golden blonde hair, along with his gorgeous little girl, but this child had jet black hair and emerald eyes so unlike his and her mother's steel blue ones. Not wanting to believe what he saw he pushed the thought to the back of his mind. His loyal Celeste would never have an affair. She loved him.

This of course was terribly incorrect. Lady Celeste Rosalyn Zythe hadn't ever loved her husband. She was just a very good liar, especially for a Gryffindor. Celeste had always known that she would marry Michael John Zythe, they'd been betrothed since she was seven and him ten. Celeste's days at Hogwarts had been merry ones. With her intended husband three years ahead and blissfully ignorant of her, she had been free of consort with whomever she wished. Sure there was a war, but Voldemort got banished so who cared? Celeste's more notable conquests included a notorious Slytherin bad boy, Alistair Lenox. A mysterious pureblood from Scotland who had taken a liking to the young Celeste. Little did they know that their little high-school fling would result in an affair almost twenty years later that would produce the most powerful witch of the century, stronger than Voldemort and incidentally his second cousin.

Mistress Katherine Lila Zythe, Gryffindor Prefect and Heir to the Zythe family fortune, was also unaware of her part in the shaping of the Wizarding World's future. Without the knowledge that her sister would become a force to rival that of the legendary Merlin, Katherine tormented her sister quite regularly. Although it wasn't physical abuse, more like psychological damage that left Selene with a very timorous demeanor and abysmal self-esteem. Katherine's father did nothing to end the suffering she inflicted on her defenseless half-sister, in fact he encouraged it.

It is these very specific circumstances that would decide whether Miss Selene Hazel Zythe would become the greatest Minister of Magic in history, retire at seventy-three and happily live out her days as a the Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry until she passed peacefully in her sleep at age one hundred and fifty-eight.

Or

Take control of the Muggle and Wizard governments, forging Earth as a whole (magical and mundane together) into a nation that explored the cosmos and colonized solar systems, this however would result in the earth's population being cut in half and then half again and also the whole continent of Africa and some parts of Europe and Asia being literally wiped of the face of the planet, a plague of rainbow butterflies would also descend upon a small castle in Scotland in this future.

There is of course a third option where Selene becomes a horrendous monster and destroys everyone in her sight until she is the last human on earth, even her cousin Voldemort would have paled at the violence and evil she'd commit in that universe. But that future would only happen if…

No, it doesn't warrant talking about, it is almost impossible for her to be sorted into that house. The hat is far too smart to place her there. It will destroy everything should she be placed with those people. They are far too dangerous, too vicious. Her family has a terrible track record when they're placed there, almost every single one has turned bad in that house…

"Slytherin!" The sorting hat called, sealing the fate of the world. Cries of horror came from all four tables with students at them. The teachers were no less surprised but hid it better than the young adults in their care.

"T-t-there m-must be an m-mistake," Selene stuttered fear and confusion in her eyes. What would her father do now? What would her sister? Would she be abandoned or could this be fixed? Was she not good enough for Gryffindor? Was she _evil?_

"Mistake!" The hat said, outraged. "Listen here child, I do not make mistakes. You belong with Salazar's students, now get over there now!"

A timid and easily frightened Selene Hazel Zythe, first of her name, was startled into yanking off the sorting hat and scampering over to the Slytherin table. The house of serpents had very few people in it this year, as it had for the past two decades since the Battle of Hogwarts in which the evil Lord Voldemort was slain by the Gryffindor hero Harry Potter, so Selene had very little trouble finding a seat. The fact that she chose to be as far away from the other nineteen students as she could be while still at their table, revealed the prejudices imbedded in her towards Slytherin, and the fact that her new house mates pointedly ignored her, showed that their experiences with Zythes and Gryffindor spawn were far from positive. To be honest, since the Battle of Hogwarts no Slytherin had been treated kindly by any of the other three houses, even though many Slytherins fought in the battle against Voldemort they were still shunned. It was as if everyone thought they could ignore Slytherin into not producing more dark lords, or ladies.

"Headmistress Clearwater, surely there's a way we can fix this. My sister belongs in Gryffindor, with her family," Miss Katherine Lila Zythe, seventh of her name, said calmly. Clearly only protesting as a formality. But nonetheless her neutral words filled young Selene with hope. Maybe she wasn't evil. Maybe it was just a mistake, surely her sister could fix this, and she was a prefect after all.

"I second the idea," a very pale boy from the head of the Slytherin table said. He had a prefect badge glittering on his green and silver robes and shoulder length white hair that was almost translucent and pastel green eyes. Clearly the Slytherin prefect hadn't spent much time outside. One does not maintain almost albino skin like that by even thinking about sunlight.

"If that is what you wish, Miss Zythe Jr. If you would mind transferring tables," The Headmistress said to Selene, clearly she was under the misconception that Fate would let Selene go without a fight. The second after Selene sat at the Gryffindor table the thousands of candles in the Great Hall flickered and suddenly the entire of Gryffindor table had been swapped with the Slytherins and everyone's ears popped simultaneously.

Selene found herself amongst nine-teen green robed teenagers. Instead of being a full three meters away from them this time she was in between the near albino boy who seconded her sister's request and a sullen girl with low cheekbones, loss red curls, and a dangerous glint in her pastel blue eyes. Another prefect badge glinted on her robes and the murderous glare directed at Selene didn't waver as she stood and moved back to the former Slytherin table, now infested with a hundred or so Gryffindors.

Her house mates and the Gryffindors glared at Selene, as if she'd purposely caused their displacement and they returned to their previous seats. Preferring to reclaim their territory than simply move Selene. However, when Selene was surrounded by the Gryffindor cohort they were displaced again. The hall became disgruntled and the Slytherins and Gryffindors grew quite annoyed as it happened for a third time.

"This is ridiculous!" The red head, who was so fond of glaring, declared standing up angrily, on Selene's left once more. "Stop it!" She demanded rounding on the girl. As expected from an eleven-year-old as timid in nature as Selene, her reaction to this verbal violence after so much emotional duress, was to burst into tears.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I-I-I don't w-w-want to be e-e-evil, I-I'm s-s-sorry," She said, tears streaming down her olive cheeks and splashing onto her new robes as she hiccupped her way through the apology.

"Stop crying!" The now more aggravated Slytherin prefect said.

"Rose! Calm down," the blonde and far more reserved prefect said, resting a pale hand on Selene's shoulder as she hiccupped and tried to regain some semblance of decorum. Her mother would be livid when she found out about her daughter showing weakness in front of the whole next generation of wizards. Celeste Zythe was always a career motivated woman.

"Scorpius! She's doing it on purpose!" The red head, Rose, cried in anger.

"She's a first year with no training Rose, sit down," Scorpius, the blonde prefect, said his voice carrying a hint of steel that wasn't there before.

Selene unconsciously shifted closer to Scorpius as any eleven-year-old girl away from home for the first time, terrified, confused and having a morality crisis would naturally do in a situation such as this. However unfortunately for Selene this was perhaps the worst thing she could have done. Rose's eyes blazed with fury as she saw the tiny movement, at this point her main thoughts were "Get away from my Malfoy!" and "This is all a plot hatched by Katherine to infiltrate us and destroy our house!" Maybe not that exact wording, but that was the gist of her internal monolog.

"Fine, side with her! We all know the Zythes are poster children for not hating Slytherins with every molecule in their righteous bodies!" Rose cried before storming out of the great hall with her ebony and emerald robes fluttering dramatically and her hair streaming out like a trail of fire behind her.

The hall was quiet after Rose's fiery departure. There was only one whispered joke about the famous 'Weasley Temper' that was quickly squashed by glares from a dark haired Ravenclaw third year with similar facial features as Rose.

"Well, wasn't that exciting," Headmistress Clearwater said brightly, "I would seem that Miss Zythe is supposed to remain with her assigned house,"

"Miss, our table," Katherine said standing up.

"Ah, I think it might be best to leave things how they are for tonight," She said, "Well students time to dig in, enjoy the meal," She said before magically a feast that the smell of alone would have made a statue's mouth water, appeared on the five tables. Stomachs around the hall rumbled and with enthusiasm the teenagers dived into the feast, their professors however showing a little more restraint and decorum in how they consumed their meals.

The Slytherin table wasn't as rowdy as the other three house tables, which is understandable considering they have less than two dozen members, all of which were pureblooded aristocrats of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, even Selene although she didn't know it then. The Gaunts before their supposed demise were part of this elite group of pureblood wizard families. As expected they were all reserved, and it wasn't just because they knew how to behave in polite society and hold a lobster fork. There was only soft requests for salt or polite thankyous uttered in the oppressive silence that springs into existence when everyone else is watching you.

"Scorpius," A small voice says from across the table, the first Slytherin to speak who wasn't a prefect.

"Hmm?" Scorpius said lifting his head slightly and focusing his pale green eyes on the boy who had spoken.

"I believe it would be beneficial to cut the feast short, our classmates are not looking favorably upon us," The dark haired boy advised, his obsidian eyes flickering over to where the Gryffindor's sat. All but a few were predictably staring daggers at one Slytherin in particular. He held his head higher, his eyes hardening. Silently the Slytherins rose as one and with calm grace they all swept out of the hall, placing a somewhat less graceful and terrified girl in the middle of their swirling black, silver lined robes. Not a soul in the castle that day could say that the Slytherins didn't look out for each other, even if they were no good death-eater scum.


End file.
